I am so pumped for the All-Star game. Its going to be great to see a Winnipeg Jet in the lineup after 15 years. I’m sure the NHL has a whole segment or two lined up about the return of the team ready to go and part of the ceremonies will be dedicated to the return of the NHL to the River City.

What? Really? The Jets don’t have a single representative at the All-Star game? Seriously? An All-Star game in Canada and a Canadian Team won’t be represented? The story of the year will have no presence? This is a joke right?

Nope no joke. The Winnipeg Jets will have no, none, zippo, nada, zero players at this years celebration of Hockey in Ottawa.

Now to be fair the Jet weren’t snubbed from the get go. Big Buff was named to the team and had to pull out due to a knee injury. Rumor was that Evander Kane was going to replace him but Kane is recovering from a concussion that he received while fighting a drunk bear as he was saving a family from a sinking battleship (I saw it on Twitter so it must be true).

So why not find another Jet to fill the spot? If you believe the local papers there is no Jet with sufficient skill to be placed on the All-Star team. That most players on the roster are just a step away from playing in a beer league. I have trouble believing believing this.

I would have bet my house that Tobias Enstrom would have gotten the nod. Sure his numbers are not fantastic due to missing a chunk of the season to injury but he seemed like a logical replacement. Enstrom was supposed to be on the team last year but he had to back out due to being hurt. You’d think they’d reward him by putting him on the team this year.

The story of the year in the NHL has been the return of the Jets. Every single team that has come to Winnipeg has commented how great it is to have the NHL back and how awesome the fan support has been. You would think the NHL would like to capitalize on that goodwill. It would be pretty easy. Have a Jet in the lineup and devote a 3 minute segment to the NHL coming back. With the game in Ottawa the NHL can trump the return to Canada. Its a win win situation.

But hey no one has ever accused the NHL and their marketing department of being bright. These are the same geniuses that thought creating cartoon characters for each of the teams was a good idea. We are not dealing with mensa candidates here.

I just don’t see why the Jets have no representation and other teams have multiple players. I guess the NHL would rather have players from bigger US markets then having each team have at least one player on the roster.

They probably figure that no one in Pittsburgh will watch unless they have three players at the All-Star game. This is the type of thinking that has gotten the NHL in trouble. This train of thought brought us the failed southern expansion and the relocation of teams to the sunbelt. Not everything the NHL does has to be about appeasing fair weather fans in the US.

The story of Winnipeg coming back is one that should be trumpeted by the NHL. Anytime they can promote Winnipeg they should be falling over themselves to do so. Sure a majority of Americans couldn’t find Winnipeg on a map but thats not whats important. When you constantly treat your customers like they are dumb and will only support a product if its US based is dangerous and downright insulting.

This shouldn’t be about Canada Vs. The US but you know damn well it is. If Atlanta moved to Kansas City you’d have probably 3 players from the Kansas City Creationists™ at the All-Star game as the NHL would be touting this as a way to grow the sport.

They won’t do that for Winnipeg because they know that the fans will support the NHL no matter how many times they take the River City for granted.